Grassland surveys?

flowerysamAugust 25, 2012

Hi,

Apologies, I am quite a newbie to botany, however I have started a job which requires some fieldwork, of which I am a complete novice. I read the NVC booklet and other papers and wished to establish species richness and species diversity of a meadowland. I was using 2m quadrats, and quickly realised that counting grass species, even once identified, is pretty hard. I went back to my bosses who seem to think I should just stick with it and count every grass species in 5 quadrats (they are not botany experts either!).

My question is, since the grass species are so mixed up at ground level, how do you tell which is a single plant to count accurately? Is it normal to actually count each plant in a 2m square on grassland, or is there a more common way of estimating species richness and species diversity? I do not wish to appear lazy in front of my supervisors, so if needs be I will go out and count them, but I will seriously question the accuracy of my study. Would not relative frequency/density, or Domin scale be more relevant?

How are you calculating diversity? You don't necessarily need an exact individual count for most diversity indices. An estimate of the percent cover of each species within the quadrats can be used instead and is probably more appropriate when you can't easily count individuals. Also, I have always used a 1-square meter quadrat which I think is easier, just because it's smaller. You would just do more of them.